Here he was, minutes before showtime, deep in a conversation with Dune Rats' Danny Beus. There was none of the usual anxiety and "hundreds" of toilet trips that usually blight his pre-show routine.

"I looked at my phone and we were on in two minutes," Wagner says. "I was almost too relaxed. That was a big change for me."

That change for The Smith Street Band frontman can be entirely contributed to his new family and the happiness it's brought to the Melbourne singer-songwriter, who has publicly battled mental health issues his entire life.

In October he married his wife Tess and several weeks later they welcomed the birth of their daughter Maisie.

Weekender has interviewed Wagner several times over the past seven years and has never heard the singer-songwriter more content.

"Becoming a dad, it opens up all these new worries," he says. "I absolutely love it and feel like I've been ready to become a parent for a while and I love every second of it, even when it's three in the morning and our baby is crying.

"It's an amazing adventure. It's hard to get back into the head space of being a touring musician, because I change nappies.

"The biggest change I've noticed is I'm so much more relaxed about shows. It's still really important and a huge part of my life, but it's not the be-all and end-all of who I am anymore.

"I hope it makes me a better performer."

Wagner's family bliss and new calmer approach to touring is perfect timing for Smith Street Band fans.

The Melbourne yob-rockers have kicked off - albeit 12 months early - their 15-year anniversary tour.

When they first started in Fitzroy in 2010 they were known as Wil Wagner and The Smith Street Band and resembled a bunch of rag-tag footy fans, rather than a heart-on-the-sleeve rock band.

Despite their uncouth appearance; Wagner's Australian vocal, vulnerable lyrics and heartland rock hooks found an audience.

The album trifecta of Sunshine & Technology (2012), Throw Me In The River (2014), More Scared Of You Than You Are Of Me (2017) pushed The Smithies into the top echelon of bands in Australia and ensured songs like Young Drunk, Death To The Lads and Surrender created passionate singalongs anywhere in the country.

However for Wagner, the band's most successful moments weren't enjoyable.

"I struggled with even the small amount of success we were experiencing," he says. "The times we were at our most successful were probably the times I struggled the most with my mental health.

"The pressure and stress of it meant I couldn't enjoy the achievements as much, which I feel being a bit older and having been through a few more years of therapy, I feel better at handling that now.

"We were very lucky we didn't catapult to where we were after three or four albums after our first album, or we would have self-destructed really.

"I'm getting better at it, but I take it all so seriously and I'm so passionate and so invested about the band and our music that sometimes that would spill over into over-thinking and paranoia."

Despite his struggles with success, Wagner has always held a soft spot for Newcastle. The city's music scene was the first place outside Melbourne to embrace The Smith Street Band. Last year's triumphant performance at the Cambridge Farewell Festival clearly illustrated the connection between the band and Newcastle.

Wagner forged close friendships with Newcastle bands Like...Alaska and Fear Like Us in the early days through drunken after-show backyard parties.

"One night at this house we brought along our friend Jeff Rosenstock from America and I was in the backyard with him, both really drunk, arm in arm, and I was pointing out at the sky and saying 'so that's the Southern Cross'," Wagner remembers.

"I was saying, 'it's this amazing thing that means different things and people get a tattoo off it'.

"I was telling him the whole history of the Southern Cross and pointing up at the sky and a friend of mine comes out and says, 'are you talking about the Southern Cross? That's not the Southern Cross. You're pointing at a random collection of stars'."

The Smith Street Band play the King Street Band Room on Saturday.